AO1 - Theory of Mind & Autism

• Theory of Mind (ToM) plays a crucial role in social cognition and is important for understanding and predicting others' behaviour.
• Theory of Mind development typically occurs during early childhood and continues to develop throughout adolescence and adulthood.
• Theory of Mind refers to the ability to understand and attribute mental states to oneself and others, such as beliefs, desires, and intentions.
• The development of Theory of Mind involves understanding that others have different beliefs, desires, and intentions from oneself.
• Theory of Mind (ToM) was first coined by Premack & Woodruff (1978) as the cognitive capability of understanding another's mind.
• Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, understand that they may be thinking or feeling different to you. This is an essential skill for empathy and success in social interactions.
• The Theory of Mind (ToM) is believed to develop at around 4 years of age.
• Some people believe that Theory of Mind is developed after mastering basic early skills such as attention, imitation, recognition and imaginary play.
• Smith (1999) suggest children develop a Theory of Mind in the following order; understanding wanting, understanding thinking and understanding that seeing leads to knowing. Smith also suggest that understanding ‘false beliefs’ and ‘hidden feelings’ demonstrate the development of a theory of mind.
• According to Smith (1999) understanding wanting is a recognition that different people want different things.
• According to Smith (1999) understanding thinking is the recognition that different people have different beliefs about the same things. Each person’s belief may be just as valid as the next person.
• According to Smith (1999) understanding that seeing leads to knowing suggests that if you have not seen it yourself, you do not know about it, so will need more information to understand it.
• According to Smith (1999) understanding false beliefs is an idea that sometimes people believe things that are not true, and may act according to their beliefs, not as to what is really true.
• Perner et al (1987) used a deceptive box task to test false beliefs in children. They found that children exhibit an understanding of false beliefs around 4-5 years old.
• The idea of false beliefs has been tested extensively in Child Psychology.
• According to Smith (1999) understanding hidden feelings is the idea that people can display different emotions to those they are really feeling.
• The Theory of Mind (ToM) is tested using the false belief method. A child is shown a scenario and asked to interpret it from the viewpoint of one of the characters. If they can do this they have a developed ToM.
• Wimmer & Perner (1983) studied ToM using a group of children aged 4, 6 and 8 years old. They watch a toy (called Maxi) place some chocolates in a blue cupboard. Maxi leaves the room during which time his mum moves the chocolates to a green cupboard. The children see Maxi return and are asked ‘where will Maxi look for the chocolates?’
• Wimmer & Perner (1983) found that most 4-year-olds incorrectly expect Maxi to look in the green cupboard whereas 6 and 8-year-olds correctly believe he will look in the blue cupboard. Supporting ToM.
• Simon Baron-Cohen is by far the biggest contributor to our knowledge of ToM. However, most of the information he has collected has been from his work on children with autism.
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985) asked children to watch as two dolls (Sally and Anne) act out a scenario similar to the Wimmer & Perner cupboard experiment. Sally places a marble in her basket and leaves the room and her basket behind. Anne removes the marble and places it in her box, then Sally returns.
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985) studied the responses to the Sally Anne task by comparing autistic children with two other groups (Down’s syndrome and Normal). He asked them a question to check their understanding of the dolls names before checking their memory. He measured their responses to a belief question in the scenario, which required them to see things from the dolls perspective.
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985) found that autistic children struggled the most with the ‘belief’ question and could not place themselves in the scenario to see things from the dolls perspective. This supports the ToM.
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985) suggested that even though the mental age of the autistic children in the experiment was higher than that of the controls, they alone failed to impute beliefs to others.
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985) suggested that children with autism seem unable to appreciate that others have different thoughts or beliefs to themselves.
• Autism is a developmental disorder characterised by an inability to socially interact with others. Studies have shown that children with autism lack a theory of mind, which restricts them from interacting emotionally with others.
• However, not all children with autism lack a theory of mind. It is also possible to develop a child’s theory of mind through play therapy and guided tuition.
• In Baron-Cohen et al (1985) 85% of the children in the two control groups correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble, compared to only 20% of the autistic children.